• A note from the 2018 Baden-Württemberg Seminar

    11/05/2018

    Five days. Six cities. Two countries. Eight educational institutions. Travel by taxi, bus, ferry, train, and on foot (50,000+ steps). Five AACRAO members and ten NAFSA members received a whirlwind introduction to the German educational system sponsored by the Baden-Württemberg government and hosted by the University of Konstanz.

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  • AACRAO launches admissions podcast

    10/31/2018

    Have you discovered the joy of listening to a great podcast, maybe while you’re cleaning, or driving, or exercising? Like books and films, podcasts come in many flavors -- nonfiction, fiction, educational, history, self-help, professional development, and more. And as with other media, it’s nice to have a handful of reliably excellent titles to choose from depending on your mood and listening context.

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  • October 2018 - Not Receiving Invitations to our Surveys?

    10/25/2018

    The results of the excess credits at graduation research project will be released as an article in the January 2019 issue of SEMQ and at a session at the SEM conference in November. A few sneak peek findings are:

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  • SEM Solutions from AACRAO

    10/24/2018

    In less than a month, hundreds of your professional colleagues will be gathering to collaborate and learn about all aspects of strategic enrollment at AACRAO's annual SEM Conference.

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  • Second-year slump: The honeymoon's over

    10/22/2018

    "Institutions typically invest heavily in the first-year experience to promote persistence, yet colleges are also experiencing a pattern of attrition in the second year," observed Althea J. Sterling, Assistant Dean for Student Services at Touro Law Center. "The second year is viewed as a period in which students encounter increasing academic, developmental, and social demands, yet the institution tends to provide less support relative to the first year."

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  • Whole-campus SEM planning

    10/19/2018

    The University of Victoria is in the process of finalizing their strategic enrollment management (SEM) plan, and Jim Dunsdon, Associate Vice-President of Student Affairs, is excited about the way the process has developed and brought the campus together.

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  • 3 tips for building the strongest SEM team possible

    10/15/2018

    To achieve organization-wide strategic enrollment management (SEM) plan buy-in, two- and four-year institutions are deploying campus-wide SEM teams. A well-functioning team can greatly increase the chances of your plan’s success.

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  • September 2018 - Defining Student Success

    09/24/2018

    I ran across two articles recently, one in Inside Higher Ed and another by Northeastern University, both talking about how some universities are giving students an Amazon Echo Dot as part of their student package...I am personally “geeking out” thinking about the research to come that will examine the relationship between student success and Alexa (or other similar interface) users to non-users.

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  • C&U Journal: "Want to Expand Global Education? Ask the Registrar!"

    09/11/2018

    Dr. Rodney Parks, University Registrar and Assistant to the Provost and Alexander Taylor, a Student Information Systems technician, at Elon University, along with Jesse Parrish, Financial Manager in the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University co-authored an article in the August 2018 issue of AACRAO’s College & University Journal. The piece, titled "Want to Expand Global Education? Ask the Registrar!”,

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  • University of Oregon offers first-in-nation virtual campus experience

    09/06/2018

    Traditionally, the campus tour is a powerful recruitment tool -- especially for institutions with unique and beautiful campuses, such as the University of Oregon in the scenic Willamette Valley in Eugene, OR.

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  • August 2018 - Qualitative Research – Often Time Consuming but Valuable

    08/28/2018

    The stories we get from our members about their experiences both professionally and with their own institutional practices add a great deal to our understanding of the complexity of higher education.

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  • July 2018 - Identify the approach colleges and universities use in recruiting high school seniors to their institutions

    07/24/2018

    We are pleased to announce new functionality for the blog. Readers can now add comments. It is our hope that this new functionality will encourage contributions from our members.

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  • Trump administration rescinds race and ethnicity guidance

    07/05/2018

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  • June 2018 - Announcing a New Research Advisory Board Member

    06/25/2018

    The AACRAO RAB is pleased to announce that we have a new member, Michael Flanigan, starting with the RAB on July 1st. Dr. Veronica Garcia is stepping away from her role on the RAB. She has been a valuable member of the group, and her service is greatly appreciated.

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  • May 2018 - The many degrees of institutional freedom

    05/24/2018

    In the almost four years that AACRAO has used the 60-Second Survey concept, I am struck by one theme that runs throughout: there are many degrees of freedom associated with the practices and policies for which we try to gain a common understanding through these surveys.

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  • March 2018 - Planning for the Demographics Shift

    05/18/2018

    Our opening keynote speaker here at the AACRAO annual conference, Francisco Marmolejo, spoke about the global economic and demographic shifts that will impact higher education in the United States and abroad in the next 20 plus years.

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  • April 2018 - Socioeconomic Paradigm Struggles for Low-Income Graduates of Elite Leagues

    05/18/2018

    I found this story in the Christian Science Monitor of great interest. The article examined the struggles of a few low-income, and/or first-generation students who experienced difficulty transitioning from “poor to privileged.”

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  • SEM as the Tool for Effective Retention Planning

    05/16/2018

    Too often, higher education professionals look to Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) simply as a recruitment plan. While this perspective overlooks the planning and organizational framework supporting effective SEM work, it also overlooks SEM’s role with successful retention planning.

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  • Get endorsed by AACRAO for competency in SEM

    05/04/2018

    Strategic Enrollment Management Endorsement Program (SEM-EP) director Christopher Tremblay chatted with AACRAO Annual Meeting attendees at his session covering AACRAO’s SEM-EP program. The program is a self-paced professional development program which promotes industry competency and readiness.

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  • Overlooked inefficiencies in Admissions that can impact yield

    05/03/2018

    ​All too often institutions focus efforts, strategies, and resources on the front end of the admissions funnel, thinking that the recruitment and marketing emphasis is the greatest factor in yield and although these areas are crucially important, the same attention and allocation of resources must also be applied to the operational and follow-up emphasis, otherwise spending on recruitment and marketing may be for naught.​

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